Notes from the Dye Pots

On our day off, we usually head to the river or go on long family walks through the fields
surrounding our house. But, this week, we choose to have a family dye day!

I had never dyed our Tweeds before, but Teresa ensured me that we could do it with Elsada with us, as there is a lot of prep involved that can be done away from the dye pots. To say the least, Elsi was very excited to spend the day with mom and dad and get to play with yarn!

The day started out beautifully. I got the pots going, while T and Elsi sipped tea and hot chocolate and prepped the Amigos Alpaca yarn under the apricot tree. We had seven lots of Tweeds to do. Each lot goes through four different dye baths to achieve their final color. So, we were looking at twenty-eight dye baths by the days end.

For the first few hours, everything went smoothly. The pots stayed hot and each batch was clearing well. When Elsi inevitably lost interest, we took the baby chickens out of their coop to play in the lawn with her. When she lost interest in them, we set up the sprinkler for her to play in. Then the clouds started rolling in…

By mid-afternoon the sky burst open! Rain turned to hail and back to rain. Elsi retreated to the living room to watch a movie, while I tended the pots and Teresa continued prepping the yarn in the doorway. Luckily, we are in New Mexico, where weather like this (usually) passes quickly.

Within a little over an hour, the clouds started to clear and Grandma came home. Elsi chose Grandma over the dye pots, so T and I were able to get back to it.

The afternoon was coming to an end and we still had seven lots to go. Teresa wanted to call it a day (Tweeds are exhausting), but we finally decided to push through.

The last lots were the “topcoat” of each color (this is our super secret dye process, so we can’t share too much here). These go relatively fast, as the pots are really hot and acidic.

In a little under two hours, the sun was close to the horizon and we pulled our last lot from the dye pot.